Review of Wonderful Days (2003) by James C — 29 Apr 2011

Sky Blue/Wonderful Days is astonishing in so many ways. Astonishingly detailed scenery, astonishingly subtle blending of 2D and 3D animation, astonishingly one-dimensional charachters, astonishingly sluggish "action", and for good measure, an astonishingly pointless love triangle.

Sky Blue is another example of what computer generated animation from Japan has been doing right: pause the screen at almost any given moment and you will have a screenshot worthy of framing. The shining city of Ecoban, like Olympus from Appleseed or Metropolis from the film of the same name, is drop dead gorgeous. Utilizing a similar technique as Titan A.E. and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Sky Blue uses two-dimensional hand drawn charachters layered overtop of computer-generated backdrops. Unlike the aforementioned films, here the charachters don't look out of place. The entire film is spectacular.

Pretty visuals can only carry Sky Blue so far, however. The characters are all one-dimensional anime archetypes, and the plot is nothing that hasn't been done better. The action is snore-inducing, moving at a strikingly sluggish pace and hitting a mark well below even Appleseed.

Credit, however, must be given to the way the plot is unravelled. Unlike many Asian pieces of science fiction, Sky Blue prefers to show emotions and plot points rather than explain them, one of the major traps it's rival Appleseed fell into.

While it isn't the Oscar-worthy material many were touting it as when it came out in 2003, Sky Blue is a treat of eye candy that looks absolutely spectacular even today. But know that beneath the pretty gloss there is a beating heart, weak though it may be.

OVERALL: 6.0/10.